Summer Grows Short...

      Last night I noticed how loud the crickets are getting... also it's getting dark earlier. Only means one thing... summer is winding it down. We have had a rainy, cloudy one this year... my basement is starting to get a musty smell! That has never happened before.

    All this is good news for sewing time, I guess.

    My Coriander Christmas monthly program has ended. After getting a late start, I am congratulating myself on keeping up! This is a BIG quilt of 18" blocks and I had to send a drone up to get this picture.

   I made a goal for myself to finish this by the end of the month-- that will make my #2 quilt finish of four hoped for this year. All that stands between me and my quilt is thirty-one of these "Christmas Arrows" sashing as I'm calling them in my head. Cute red striped fabric, huh?

     So there's ONE finished! I don't enjoy this type of repetitive sewing, which explains why I love a sampler quilt, but doesn't at all explain why I enjoy this hobby. Here's my eighty flying geese needed...

    I got tricked into making 18 of the wrong kind... the instructions in this book were PERFECT up to the end. One of the diagrams was colored improperly. 

    Of course, you are supposed to check on line for pattern corrections before beginning anything, but I couldn't find a thing anywhere. Once I questioned it, "they" sent me a link to where it was noted... honestly, it is in the remotest spot possible-- in fact, I haven't even been able to find it without the link "they" gave me. By "they" I mean to protect the guilty-- I understand the difficulty of writing instructions, and furthermore, I've spent a lifetime protecting the guilty-- apparently, I missed my true calling as a defense attorney.

Stitches of the Sea is together! 

(At least as much as it needs to be for the QAYG finishing kit. )

When I put my creatures under the ruler for trimming, I felt like I was looking into an actual aquarium! I am so proud of this work and they deserve a stunning finish.

I am planning shell and wave quilting… it does not look right now like you are going to need sashing fabric. There's just a question in my mind if the shells should be stitched right on there, or stitched separately and then appliqued on. (Don't worry, I'm not talking about hand applique.) 

I'm pouring myself into this right now and I’m pretty motivated to close it out this month. The freestanding version is posing some technical issues with the odd shaped sashings and will be done second. Thanks for your patience everyone and I think you will LOVE IT!

Christmas ABCs are almost done. Pillow or framed? I need more Christmas wall art like a hole in the head, but I seriously love this thing.  Can I imagine people sitting on it? Not at this moment! You have to wait until about October until instructions and color charts are written, but making ABC lists is fun and I already have Autumn and Halloween sketched out. Christmas is four panels but others might be less to make them a bit more approachable.

Adding a little sentiment to the center of the design this afternoon.

My guilty pleasure… this is the last time I’m showing this for a bit. Progress. Is. Sew. Slow. 

Still can’t put it down, but it’s teaching my how to Uber focus ON ONE THING AT A TIME. I completely mean to move on to my Baltimore Album quilt borders, DO OR DIE by September. There are two left to do, and I may prep them both at the same time— yes, from the Coriander Christmas quilt, I have learned that eighty at a time goes faster than one at a time— assembly line, people, assembly line. Like other things in my life it seems like I must learn these lessons again and again. How grateful I am to be able to wake up every morning, ready to start over.

xox 

Carol